Adam Cole, Gregor Petrikovič, Mick Grierson: Me vs. You: On queer intimacy and the interpretive limits of AI vision systems
Artist(s):
Title:
- Me vs. You: On queer intimacy and the interpretive limits of AI vision systems
Exhibition:
Medium:
- Multichannel Video Installation
Category:
Artist Statement:
Me vs. You explores the nuances of queer intimacy in a world increasingly mediated by AI technologies. In this multichannel video installation, artists Adam Cole and Gregor Petrikovič feed footage from a wrestling match through a generative AI pipeline to expose the limits of surveillance-oriented machine vision systems in interpreting human interaction.
Central to the artwork is a live recorded wrestling match between the artists, captured and analyzed by an AI depth map network. This technology is designed to separate subjects, but here the close contact between the fighters confuses the AI model. When fed forward into a generative video pipeline, the boundaries of the two entities becomes blurred. Instead of a straightforward wrestling match, the fight oscillates between moments of intense aggression and tender entanglement.
The installation was showcased in an exhibition “Model For Me” at K48 project space in Vienna. It features two screens: the lower displays the depth maps, showing the machine’s perspective, while the upper screen interprets the depth maps through an AI video pipeline. The audio includes original sound recordings from the match, grounding the piece in reality, alongside an enveloping soundscape by composer Asher Levitas.
Overall, the work questions the limits of cold rational networks in understanding the complex web of human conflict, desire, and intimacy. The network’s failure of interpretation, while inaccurate, ends up being much more illustrative of the invisible complexities at the heart of human relationships.
